St Albans City looking to go again as in-form Gloucester rivals gather pace

PUBLISHED: 12:00 31 August 2017

Action from St Albans match at Braintree (pic Bob Walkley)

Robert Walkley

St Albans City boss Ian Allinson says his players need to pick themselves up for Saturday’s visit of Gloucester after their six-game winning start to the National League season came to an end this week.

Defeat at Braintree on Monday ended Saints 100 per cent record, but Allinson was realistic about the outcome.

He said: “We were never going to go the whole season and not lose a game. We’ve got to learn from it. We’ve got 35 more games to go. We go again Thursday night for Gloucester on Saturday, which is going to be tough as they’ve won four on the trot.

“It’s a long hard season and once the weather changes, we’re going to pick up some injuries, some suspensions, and we have to wipe ourselves down and go again.

“We’ll get ourselves prepared. We never said any game in this league was going to be easy. The start we’ve had has surprised us all, but before we’ve kept clean sheets.

“Another clean sheet would’ve been nice, you don’t lose if you keep clean sheets. But sometimes you have to earn the right to win a game of football.”

Allinson felt too many of his players simply ‘did not turn up’ at Cressing Road, having had to come from behind to beat Concord Rangers 2-1 at Clarence Park on Saturday. And he warned changes would be made if needed, adding: “It’s down to me and the coaching team to make sure every player realises how hard every game is going to be.

“We have to get the players to apply themselves week in, week out, because if we don’t it will be tough. We’ve had a great start. I pat everybody on the back, the players have been outstanding. But we dropped our standards from where we were over the last three or four weeks.

“Places aren’t guaranteed. We’ve got a squad and if people aren’t performing we can move people around. We’re not frightened of leaving anybody out. If players aren’t performing to the level we require we will let them sit on the bench with us. There wasn’t that energy we’ve shown in some games.

“It’s one game in seven we’ve not really turned up. It’s something that might have crept in and we’ve got to get it out very quickly and make people realise we’re not the finished article.

“We’re not the best side in this league, what we have to do is work extremely hard to win games.”